Man wanted in drive-by that injured three teens surrenders to police in Athens

Santino Deante Luke, 20, surrendered a day after he allegedly committed a drive-by that injured three teenagers in Athens, police said.

Athens-Clarke County police

A 20-year-old man who was wanted for allegedly firing into a crowd and injuring three teenagers during a drive-by in east Athens neighborhood has surrendered, police said Monday.

Santino Deante Luke, of Magnolia Street, was arrested Monday morning and charged with three counts of aggravated assault, according to the Athens-Clarke County police. Luke was charged in the triple shooting that happened around 12:15 a.m. Sunday at a home on Deer Parkway in the Deer Park neighborhood near Lexington Road, police said.

Officers responded to the home after getting a report of a shooting and found the three victims, police spokeswoman Hilda Sorrow said. Investigators said Luke allegedly drove by in a vehicle and began shooting into a crowd of people, wounding the three individuals.

Witnesses told police that Luke fired at least six or seven shots while he was in the back seat of the moving car, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. The witnesses said that some people in the group belonged to a gang that calls itself “2 Tuff,” and that Luke was a member of a rival gang, NBA, which stands for Never Broke Again, the paper reported.

A police incident report indicates that one of the victims apparently returned fire, noting that bullet cartridge casings belonging to the victim were recovered from the scene.

The victims have been identified as Martavious Fields, 19, who lived at the home, Kinarious Faust, 19, of Martin Court, and Andricus Henderson, 17, of Winter Circle in Winterville, Sorrow said. All three sustained gunshot wounds and were transported to local hospitals with non-life threatening wounds, she said.

Luke was previously arrested two months ago in connection with what police called a gang-related beating when he and four other suspects allegedly went to the area of Classic City High School and sought out two students and assaulted them, the Athens paper reported.

Police said at the time that the March 26 purported gang attack was a “spill over” from an incident the previous weekend at the Athens Gardens apartment complex.

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Former police reporter for The State newspaper, Kimathi T. Lewis left her mark in print with stories that evoked community support and a column that helped capture dozens of fugitives. This award-winning reporter with a B.A. in Journalism can be reached at naturekleen@msn.com.